Steel Industry (Special Measures) Act 2025

Baroness Garden of Frognal Excerpts

Thursday 23rd October 2025 Lords Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Business and Trade and Department for Science, Information and Technology (Baroness Lloyd of Effra) (Lab) (Maiden Speech)]

My Lords, it is an enormous honour to address your Lordships’ House for the first time, in introducing today’s debate on the future of the steel industry. I start by thanking all those who have welcomed me: the Garter King of Arms, the Clerk of the Parliaments, Black Rod, their excellent teams, and the doorkeepers, who have already had cause to gently shepherd me in the ways of the House for the misdemeanour of trying to take notes when I came in below the Bar to observe noble Lords at Oral Questions.

I have heard much about the civility and respect in this House, and these values are important to me—the principle of airing arguments and debating positions openly and without rancour. I thank my supporters last week—my noble friends the Leader of the House, Lady Smith of Basildon and Lady Armstrong of Hill Top—and the Front Bench team for their support, particularly my noble friends Lord Leong, Lord Collins of Highbury and the Chief Whip, my noble friend Lord Kennedy of Southwark. I pay tribute to my predecessor, my noble friend Lady Jones of Whitchurch, for her tireless work on enshrining rights for decent work and embedding online safety rules, among many other areas. I am stepping into very big shoes.

On the face of it, there is perhaps not much that links my journey to this place with the steel industry. Perhaps, though, the common thread is the importance of the public and private sectors working together, and the importance of ensuring that our economy is providing decent jobs for all. For almost two decades, I have worked in the private sector and in development finance, latterly with British International Investment, the UK’s development finance institution. We focused on the dual mandate of providing a return to the taxpayer with measurable development impact. The business’s finance in emerging markets spans major renewable infrastructure supporting the green transition, manufacturing, and bringing added value to modern methods of agriculture, all underpinned with high ESG standards.

I have had the pleasure of seeing what access to the internet can bring to women business owners in Nepal, the connectivity that upgraded port infrastructure can bring to businesses in Africa, and how wind farms in Pakistan can be protected against floods through resuscitation of mangroves, at the same time bringing back fishing stocks for local fishermen.

Much earlier in my career, I had the privilege of working for the former Prime Minister, now Sir Tony Blair. I was guided by many in this House, notably my noble friends Lady Hunter of Auchenreoch, Lord Wilson of Sedgefield and, later, Lady Morgan of Huyton. That taught me the importance of rooting positions in facts as well as political arguments, but also that strong teams are built on laughter and mutual support, as well as hard work.

When it came to choosing the title I would take on joining the House, I must admit that I struggled a little. I was born in the south of England and have family roots in Wales. I enjoy nature, hiking and the living world. I live in south London and, over the past years, I have learned more about its local history and the Great North Wood that is still a corridor between the parks of Brockwell, Sydenham woods and Crystal Palace. I was intrigued by the waves of development and gradual urbanisation. I wanted something that connected the living environment, history and the places I live, and the somewhat mythical River Effra came to mind. Its course traced many of the places I have walked with our dog and family and, though now enclosed, it feeds into the Thames close to my cycle route to work.

I extend a warm welcome to my noble friend Lord Stockwood, who will also give his maiden speech today. He brings extensive practical business experience to the House. Together, we serve a Government who recognise that a strong economy must rest on strong foundations, whether that is our defence capability, energy security or domestic steel capacity, which we are discussing today.

That is why, earlier this year, when the future of British Steel was in jeopardy, we took decisive action to support continued steel production at Scunthorpe. We said that we could not and would not let the fires in the blast furnaces be extinguished, and we protected the 2,700 employees whose jobs were at immediate risk: the steel-making communities whose future depends on British Steel’s success.

We have stayed true to our word. Since our intervention in April, we have worked tirelessly to secure raw materials and avoid the blast furnaces having to close prematurely due to insufficient supplies. We have made available roughly £270 million as working capital for British Steel. That predominantly covers raw materials, salaries and invoices from SMEs in the supply chain—in other words, essential expenditure. Keeping workers safe and protected is our number one priority: indeed, the Government have spent almost £4 million on safety-critical matters at British Steel since April. This expenditure will form part of the overall cost of the intervention and be included in the Department for Business and Trade’s accounts for 2025-26.

British Steel has been working hard to reverse declining production and, in recent months, the company, with government funding, has been hiring new staff, including apprentices, to ensure the safe and continued operation of the blast furnaces. Our focus now is on working with Jingye to find a pragmatic and realistic solution for the future of the company. Once that solution is found, we can terminate the directions issued to British Steel and make a statement on the need to retain or repeal the special measures Act. Our ambition is to secure the long-term viability of steel-making at Scunthorpe and, indeed, the UK steel sector as a whole.

That is why, over the past few months, we have been putting in the hard work to set this key industry up for long-term success. That very much includes the economic prosperity deal we secured with the United States. As a result of that deal, the UK is the only country in the world to benefit from a preferential 25% rate on steel and aluminium exports to the US. This gives companies such as British Steel a 25% advantage over the competition and it strengthens our reputation as a trusted supplier of high-quality steel and aluminium for global markets.

Of course, we know that one of the principal reasons why our steel industry has struggled these past few years is global excess capacity—countries choosing to flood the market with cheap steel in a bid to quash healthy competition. We are calling that practice out. Indeed, earlier this month I joined Ministers from partner countries at the global forum on steel excess capacity in South Africa. The UK has lobbied hard to develop a comprehensive framework for joint action to address global steel excess capacity by June next year, and that is something my ministerial counterparts have agreed to. We must continue to act multilaterally.

On 7 October, the European Commission proposed a new steel trade measure on imports to replace its current steel safeguard. It will need to take this proposal through its legislative processes and member states, and through engagement with the WTO and with its free trade agreement partners, including the UK. I wish to reassure Members of the House, the sector and steel communities that we are taking this matter extremely seriously and are determined to find a solution. We will always defend our critical steel industry and have already engaged the EU at ministerial and official level to understand the details of this proposal. It is vital that we protect trade flows between the UK and the EU, and we hope there is a way to work with our closest allies to address global challenges, rather than adding to our industry’s woes. We reserve the right to take any action in response to any changes to our trading relationships. The Minister for Industry spoke to representatives of the steel industry on 9 October to listen to their concerns, and reconfirmed that we will do everything in our power to support a resilient and forward-looking steel sector.

Closer to home, we have been creating the right conditions for the UK steel sector to thrive. We are reducing electricity costs for steel producers by increasing network charge discounts through the British industry supercharger. We are strengthening current steel safeguard measures to support our producers, while ensuring that the UK maintains a steady and reliable supply. We are fulfilling our promise to create a pipeline of big infrastructure projects, such as the third runway at Heathrow. This will demand at least 400,000 tonnes of steel, primarily to reinforce concrete beneath tarmac. That is eight times the amount of steel used in the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

I know the House will agree that, when construction firms are building roads, runways and railways here in Britain, they should make full use of British steel wherever they can. Indeed, that is why we have changed government procurement rules. Our new steel public procurement notice will ensure that UK-made steel is considered for all public projects, and we are building on this momentum. We intend to publish a new steel strategy for the UK. The industry will require investment, modernisation and decarbonisation in order to compete in the global economy.

To that end, we accept the need to look seriously at options for primary steel-making in the UK. Late last year, we asked independent experts from the Materials Processing Institute to conduct a review into the viability of future primary steel-making technologies. Their findings and recommendations will also be published soon. It goes without saying that we would want to retain this capability here in the UK, but we have to be realistic. There has to be a strong business case, with the private sector, not British taxpayers, leading the charge. Our steel strategy will cover this and the additional steps we intend to take in creating the pro-growth business environment for UK steel.

We do not underestimate the scale of the challenges facing the steel sector today—whether that is in costs, competition or climate change. We cannot promise to solve all these challenges overnight, but equally, this Government will never watch from the sidelines; we will always be on the pitch. We have shown that in our intervention at British Steel. We have shown it in the actions we are supporting with Speciality Steels UK, where we are supporting the official receiver to find the right buyer who can offer the right support for the workforce and the company. We have shown it too in the much-improved deal we have secured for workers at Port Talbot, a deal delivered alongside £500 million of investment from the Government to support the transition to a low-carbon electric arc furnace.

With a Government committed to fixing the foundations of our economy, we will ensure that our steel sector plays a vital role in Britain’s future. I beg to move.

[The Deputy Speaker (Baroness Garden of Frognal) (LD)]

Congratulations to the noble Baroness on her maiden speech.

Employment Rights Bill

Baroness Garden of Frognal Excerpts

Report stage
Wednesday 23rd July 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Garden of Frognal (LD)]

My Lords, it is very late and I will be very brief, but I want to associate these Benches with all that the noble Baroness, Lady Wolf, has raised. Apprenticeships should be for those starting out in working life. A level 7 apprenticeship is surely a contradiction in terms, but the perversity of the apprenticeship levy has meant that many employers choose to use their contributions on existing employees rather than face the possible problems and uncertainties of employing an untried and untested young person.

We need many more opportunities for employment for those young people who have been turned off by the academic programmes of schools. Many will have the very skills that the country needs but were not encouraged at school because the Conservatives stressed knowledge, not employability, and practical and artistic skills disappeared from many state schools.

The measures in the Bill for day-one rights for all employees will not encourage large or, particularly, small employers to take the chance on a youngster new to paid work. We have been encouraged by some of the words from Ministers, and we hope that they will look again at managing to exempt apprentices from these privileges and finding ways for employers actively to look for opportunities to enable the young not in education, employment or training to fulfil potential and make a contribution to the economy, instead of gearing up to a lifetime on benefits.

[Lord Aberdare (CB)]

My Lords, I put my name to the two amendments in the name of my noble friend Lady Wolf because I entirely share her concern that the Bill as drafted could have a damaging effect on apprenticeships, especially for young people and especially in small firms.

I am very grateful to my noble friend for her kind words, but I do not think that in this particular debate I would be greatly missed, because she and the noble Baroness, Lady Garden, have said everything that I could possibly have said—so I am not going to add a great deal to that. It is just as well that I did not choose 24 July as my departure date because, if I had, I would turn into a pumpkin at midnight and apparently we would have to adjourn the House for me to continue my speech—it has been done in the past.

I very much welcome the fact that the Government are undertaking some important consultations in this area, including on employment status. It is very important that they should look at the issues impacting apprenticeships for young people and in small firms, and they should, I hope, come up with some evidence for what sort of action might be needed to address those issues and prevent the kind of impacts that my noble friend described. That may well involve recognising, as so many other countries do, the fact that apprenticeships are a different form of employment from other forms and involve commitments on behalf of both the apprentice and the employer that will make undertaking particularly the day-one employment rights much harder to live with for the small firms involved.

With that, I encourage the Government to look very seriously at this and to consider the possibility of a separate legal employment status for apprenticeships. I will look forward to some sort of positive response from the Minister before I turn into a pumpkin—or wave a white flag, like the noble Lord, Lord Goddard.

Online Abuse: Protection for Children

Baroness Garden of Frognal Excerpts

Wednesday 11th June 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)]

My Lords, schools must have a policy on this issue. They are all expected to have a policy about the use of phones in schools, for example, and we have been very clear about our expectations on that. The noble Baroness is right: the issue of mental health is fundamental, and tackling excessive screen time among children is a real priority for the Government. Nevertheless, we recognise that online activities can have benefits for children, such as helping them make connections, learn new skills and gain independence. We want to get that right and make sure that children have a balanced childhood overall, with a mixture of online and offline activities, and that will be our strategy going forward.

[Baroness Garden of Frognal (LD)]

My Lords, following on from that last question, can the Minister say what is being done to ensure that teachers have the right skills to train children in school on the dangers of online communication?

[Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)]

My Lords, this is already a priority. The Department for Education is making sure that teachers have the training support to tackle these issues. Teachers have been asking for this, and we have responded, because sometimes they feel that they do not have the tools to raise these issues appropriately. It is something that the department is anxious to deal with, and it is building it into future training programmes to give teachers more confidence to tackle these issues.

Employment Rights Bill

Baroness Garden of Frognal Excerpts

Committee stage
Wednesday 21st May 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Aberdare (CB)]

My Lords, I rise to move Amendment 102, in the name of my noble friend Lady Wolf of Dulwich, who much regrets that she is unable to be here today to move it herself. I was delighted to add my name to this very specific amendment, addressing what I am sure is an unintended consequence of the Bill. I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Knight of Weymouth, and the noble Baroness, Lady Garden of Frognal, both of whom have enormous expertise in apprenticeships, for adding their names as well.

Apprenticeships are key to developing the skills we need for achieving our national goals, including all the Government’s missions. The value and importance of apprenticeships is increasingly recognised, not least by young people and their families, but there are not enough apprenticeships available, and the majority are used by employers for upskilling or reskilling older people already in the workplace. We need many more apprenticeships for younger people, but the number of 16 to 24 year-olds starting apprenticeships has been declining. Only one in four young people in this age group who seeks an apprenticeship gets one, and the number of apprenticeships going to young people has declined from 41% in 2008 to 23%.

Small businesses have a crucial part to play in providing apprenticeships for young people. Some 70% of existing apprenticeships are in small businesses, and there is huge scope for small firms to offer many more apprenticeship opportunities. But it has proved consistently hard to persuade small employers to take on apprentices. One reason is cost, despite the extra payments available from government for small firms employing young apprentices, particularly if they have special needs. More important disincentives include the extra workload involved in training and supervising young apprentices, the amount of bureaucracy involved in navigating the apprenticeship system and, sometimes, the uncertainty about whether a firm will have a sufficient pipeline of work for the full term of the apprenticeship. There have been various schemes aimed at addressing these issues—group training associations, apprenticeship training agencies and now flexi-job apprenticeships—but in none of these cases has much impact been made on convincing more SMEs to offer more apprenticeships.

I believe there is a real danger that the day 1 employment rights set out in Clause 23 and Schedule 3 to the Bill could actually exacerbate this problem rather than helping to resolve it, by acting as a further significant disincentive to small employers considering taking on apprentices. My noble friend’s proposed amendment provides a closely targeted exemption for apprentices under 21 during a probation period of no more than six months, with a contract agreed by both the apprentice and the employer. This seems to me to be fair to both the employer and the apprentice.

For the employer, it helps to offset the high risk involved in taking on a young person who may—indeed, probably will—never have been employed before, and who may themselves decide within the first few weeks or months that the apprenticeship is not right for them. The existing risks and unknowns for an employer in taking on the costs, workload and duties of apprenticeships are hard enough to overcome without the additional burden of taking on full employment responsibility for an untried young person, probably in their first job, who may or may not turn out to have the attributes for or interests in that particular job.

These are not, after all, people with experience from previous jobs and a track record for a new employer to assess. Many of them may be among the almost 1 million young people currently defined as NEET—not in employment, education or training—whom the Government quite rightly are desperately keen to get into employment, for example through the planned youth guarantee. The amendment does not relate to people changing jobs, so it has nothing to do with labour market mobility, which this clause seems designed largely to promote.

I hope the Minister will be able to tell us what specific assessment the Government have made of the likely impact of this part of the Bill on the willingness of businesses, especially smaller businesses, to take on young apprentices. You would not need to talk to many small business employers to conclude that it could be very damaging. That would be bad news for such firms themselves, for our national skills needs, for the wider economy and, above all, for the potential young apprentices, who might miss out on attractive opportunities. This amendment would help to counter that, and I beg to move.

[Baroness Garden of Frognal (LD)]

My Lords, I added my name to this amendment, which was tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Wolf, but has been very ably spoken to by the noble Lord, Lord Aberdare. He and I tend to find ourselves in the same Lobbies for just about everything to do with apprenticeships.

We only very recently debated a Bill abolishing the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education so that this amazing new body Skills England could emerge. We still know remarkably little about Skills England. It has a proud remit, but we do not yet know what it is going to perform.

As the noble Lord, Lord Aberdare, set out, this amendment is really important because there is a real problem in attracting youngsters into apprenticeships. An apprenticeship was always something for somebody starting out in a career, but the vagaries of the apprenticeship levy mean that they are increasingly being given to people mid-career, for advancing their careers. Unless there is more incentive to enable young people to access the workforce, we will be in an even more dire state. We have nearly a million NEETs now—young people not in education, employment or training—and, if they cannot access apprenticeships, that figure is only set to go up.

We know that, in other European countries, apprentices have a specific distinctive legal status, but they do not in the UK; they are simply employees who have received an apprenticeship learning contract. The Bill will apply to them all, whether they are an 18 year-old or a 50 year-old. This cannot be desirable. I beg the Government to look again at this, because it is hugely important that we do not deter employers from taking on youngsters.

I went with the social mobility committee up to Blackpool and The Fylde College recently, and we were talking to employers there who were already bemoaning the fact that it was incredibly difficult for them to take on apprentices. There was so much bureaucracy and burdensome stuff that they had to follow. They were all saying that, if this came in and if the apprentices had full employment rights from day 1, that would deter them even more. That really cannot be right, and I beg the Minister to listen to this amendment.

[Baroness Stowell of Beeston (Con)]

My Lords, I briefly add my support for Amendment 102 and will pick up on the comments of the noble Baroness, Lady Garden, on her committee’s recent visit to the Blackpool and The Fylde further education college. I declare an interest as a commissioner at the Social Mobility Commission, the chair of which is also the principal of the FE college that the committee went to visit. From the perspective of social mobility and the importance of apprenticeships, any measure that would deter the creation of quality apprenticeships that are successful is a bad one, and I therefore support this amendment.

Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill

Baroness Garden of Frognal Excerpts

Committee stage
Monday 27th March 2023 Grand Committee

[Lord Clement-Jones (LD)]

May I just clarify for the Minister that it would be very unfortunate if he pressed his amendment? If he pressed it and lost it in Committee, I do not think he could bring back exactly the same amendment on Report. That is the rule: he would have to bring back something different on Report, even if all the officials and legal advice said that it was a perfectly sound clause—he may well get advice on that. I suggest that he withdraws it so that we do not have to vote against it.

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Baroness Garden of Frognal) (LD)]

My Lords, I advise that, if the amendment is voted against, it is negatived.

[Lord Johnson of Lainston (Con)]

My Lords, I am extremely grateful to noble Lords for their input. I hope they felt, over the last few hours of very productive debate, that the intentions of this Government and the speakers in this debate are entirely aligned: to try to create the right structure for Companies House and the right penalties and compliance regime. Given that, and my gratitude to the Committee for the constructive discussion, I beg leave to withdraw this amendment, with the understanding that we may easily return with something identical on Report, having followed a good degree of debate and discussion on that point.